Aust faces more calls to help Assange
The Australian government is facing more calls to help troubled Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
UPDATE 8:20AM (AEST): THE British government has warned that a diplomatic standoff over the WikiLeaks founder could go on for years.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his government was obliged under its own laws to extradite the Australian national to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes.
"No one, least of all the government of Ecuador, should be in any doubt that we are determined to carry out our legal obligation to see Mr Assange extradited to Sweden," Hague told a press conference.
Meanwhile, both Ecuador and Sweden suggested on Friday they were prepared to be patient and wait.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said Assange would remain in Quito's embassy as long as Britain refused to give him safe passage.
"The problem is that they aren't going to give him the safe conduct," Correa said in a radio interview, adding that "Mr Assange can stay indefinitely in our embassy".
A protester shows his support for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told his country's TT news agency: "We have no reason to do too much, we're going to wait and see what happens."
About 20 British police were stationed outside the embassy, ready to arrest the 41-year-old Assange if he leaves the premises.
WikiLeaks condemned the police presence as "intimidation tactics".
A handful of supporters of the former computer hacker camped overnight outside the embassy in London's plush Knightsbridge district in a bid to "guard" Assange against any potential attempt to arrest him.
"We'll stay here as long as we have to," 26-year-old protester Baba Gena said.
In this file photo, Julian Assange arrives at the Supreme Court in London. Picture: Kirsty Wigglesworth
UPDATE 7:20AM (AEST):
THE United States says it does not believe in "diplomatic asylum" after Ecuador offered to let WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stay indefinitely in its embassy in London.
While the United States did not sign or ratify the 1954 convention on diplomatic asylum, it has often used the safety of its embassies to protect activists in authoritarian countries.
Ecuador condemns UK stance on Assange
Ecuador's assembly votes to condemn the UK's threats to raid its London embassy as the Organization of American States calls an emergency m...
Ecuador has turned to the Organisation of American States, which met on Thursday and Friday in Washington, after deciding to offer asylum to the internet activist who is wanted for questioning in Sweden on sexual assault allegations.
Under a 1954 agreement, the Organisation of American States agreed to allow asylum in diplomatic missions for "persons being sought for political reasons," although not individuals indicted for "common offences".
"The United States is not a party to the 1954 OAS Convention on Diplomatic Asylum and does not recognise the concept of diplomatic asylum as a matter of international law," the State Department said in a statement.
"We believe this is a bilateral issue between Ecuador and the United Kingdom and that the OAS has no role to play in this matter," it said.
Supporters of Assange believe that the 41-year-old Australian is at risk of extradition to the United States after angering authorities by publishing a trove of sensitive diplomatic cables.
A supporter of Julian Assange stands outside the Ecuadorian embassy. Picture: ANDREW COWIE
The United States has denied pressuring Britain to arrest Assange, who has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy since June.
Washington has not commented on potential legal actions but said it has no intention of "persecuting" Assange.
UPDATE 6AM (AEST):
A sign in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is held up outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Picture: WILL OLIVER
AUSTRALIAN diplomats believe the US is targeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for possible prosecution.
The Australian embassy in Washington is taking seriously the possibility Assange could eventually be extradited to the US on charges including espionage and conspiracy relating to the release of classified information by WikiLeaks, Fairfax newspapers report.
The embassy has been keeping tabs on a US investigation into WikiLeaks and Assange for more than 18 months and cites media reports about the secret empanelment of a grand jury to pursue the WikiLeaks case, according to declassified cables released under Freedom of Information.
The view expressed in the cables conflicts with Foreign Minister Bob Carr's public statements on the Australian's possible fate.
Fairfax reports the cables also show that the Australian government requested early advice from the US on any decision to indict or seek extradition of Assange.
UPDATE 4:30AM (AEST)
ECUADOR'S president says the fact that he granted asylum to Julian Assange doesn't mean he agrees with everything the WikiLeaks founder says or does.
Rafael Correa says asylum was granted on Thursday because Sweden wouldn't offer assurances that it would not extradite Assange to the United States.
Assange took refuge in Ecuador's London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning for alleged sexual misconduct.
Correa said in a radio interview on Friday that it's possible Assange has committed "an offence" but insists that he deserves due process.
He repeated Ecuador's contention that the Australian could face life in prison or even the death penalty in the United States, which Assange backers believe has secretly indicted him for publishing US secrets.
EARLIER
THE Ecuadorean Embassy is preparing for a long stand off with British authorities as the South American country’s president declares his Australian guest can stay indefinitely.
In an interview early this morning, President Rafael Correa said he didn’t agree with everything the 41-year-old Wikileaks founder had done but he said he could not fathom condemning him to life in prison or the death penalty.
Two months ago today Mr Assange sought political asylum in the small embassy in London after a British court declared he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault.
Mr Assange and his supporters claim the move was only to then extradite him on to the US where he faces prosecution for the 2010 leaking of thousands of sensitive cables. Asylum was granted last Thursday.
"The problem is that they aren't going to give him the safe conduct," President Correa said, adding "Mr Assange can stay indefinitely in our embassy."
In his first public comments since the decision, President Correa said neither Sweden nor the UK could guarantee Mr Assange wouldn’t be sent to the US.
"I am not in agreement with everything that Julian Assange has done but does that mean he deserves the death penalty, life in prison, to be extradited to a third country. Please! Where is the proportionality between the crime and the punishment? Where is due process?"
"The main reason why Julian Assange was given diplomatic asylum was because his extradition to a third country was not guaranteed, in no way was it done to interrupt the investigations of Swedish justice over an alleged crime. In no way," Mr Correa said.
This morning crates of food, including fresh fruit and vegetables, were being trucked into the embassy building as well as bottles of water. The embassy is not geared for accommodation but have since brought in a bed and rigged up a shower.
Assange 'orders in pizza'
Meanwhile, new details of Mr Assange's living conditions inside the embassy have emerged, with friends saying he sleeps in a converted office, orders pizza deliveries and has dance parties with pals.
The once globe-trotting WikiLeaks founder is now confined to a cramped space. If he goes outside he will be arrested by British police and extradited to Sweden to be questioned about allegations of sexual assault.
The 41-year-old Australian computer expert has spent almost two months inside the embassy of the South American country, which on Thursday granted him asylum.
Mr Assange said he will make a statement today in front of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Ecuador lacks any obvious means of getting Assange past the police officers on the doorstep, onto a plane and out of Britain.
The Ecuadorian embassy consists of a ground floor apartment, some 10 rooms in all, inside an imposing red-brick apartment block in London's posh Knightsbridge area, practically next door to the luxury department store Harrods.
The mission has no bedrooms or guest accommodation. People who have visited Assange say he is living in an office that has been outfitted with a bed, access to a phone and a connection to the Internet.
A shower has been installed, and the embassy has a small kitchenette. Mr Assange also has received deliveries of pizza and other take-out food.
"It's not quite the Hilton," said Gavin MacFadyen, a supporter who has met with Mr Assange at the embassy.
A treadmill provides some opportunity for exercise, and a sun lamp helps compensate for the lack of natural light.
Mr Assange's mother, Christine, has said that visiting friends "turn the music on and encourage him to dance with them."
But Mrs Assange has expressed fears for her son's health. She said last month he was facing severe stress after weeks of confinement and more than 18 months fighting legal battles while under strict bail conditions in Britain.
"He is under a lot of stress and it's been long-term stress now for nearly two years and in conditions which are similar to detention," she said.
Mr Smith, who visited Assange this week, said his friend was holding up well.
"He lives in a small room which can hardly be described as comfortable," Smith told the Evening Standard newspaper. "As a person though, he is happiest behind a computer doing his job. He is coping well.
"He was the same Julian he was when he was staying with me. He is not a sentimental person and so does not miss things other people might miss. He is focused on work."
There are few precedents for the situation Assange finds himself in. One of the most famous is the case of Roman Catholic Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, who sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest in 1956 and remained there for 15 years.
Few think the current stalemate will drag on that long.
Mr Cooper said the most likely outcome, barring a diplomatic agreement between Britain and Ecuador, was that eventually isolation and confinement would drive Assange out of the embassy, even if it meant arrest.
"Ultimately the social incarceration will lead to him coming out," Mr Cooper said. "I don't know when that will happen, but I think he will come out."
Calls to help
The Australian government is facing more calls to help troubled Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who remains holed up in Ecuador's London embassy where he has been granted asylum.
The Federal Government is so far refusing to get involved, with ministers reiterating when questioned that the asylum decision is a matter for Mr Assange and the governments of Ecuador and the UK.
The Greens believe he should be given more than consular assistance, and a member of Mr Assange's defence team says Canberra should help end the international stand-off that is keeping him inside the embassy.
Like the Australian Government, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Mr Assange should be subject to British law like any other citizen.
"Whatever the ordinary law of Britain is, whatever would happen to anyone else in the same circumstances, Julia Assange should get identical treatment to anyone else in a similar position," Mr Abbott told the Nine Network today.
"He should be given all the assistance which the Australian government would give to any Australian in trouble abroad."
However, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says consular assistance is not enough.
"He's in enormous trouble and he needs the help of his government," the senator said.
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC, who's advising Mr Assange's defence, said Australia should get involved.
"The Ecuadorians have been questioning the Americans, the Swedes and the British, but the obvious country, the country of Mr Assange's nationality, hasn't been involved," he told ABC TV.
"So it may be an opportunity for Australia to get involved ... and see if it can square this circle."
UPDATE 12:30PM (AEST):
A SWEDISH minister has called besieged WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange a "coward", a "pitiful wretch" and a "scumbag".
Swedish media reports the Minister of Social Affairs Goran Hagglund has fired off a furious Twitter message:
"Sick. A coward who does not dare to have his case tried by the court. If the accusations against him are true, he is a scumbag."
There are no charges against Assange. Sweden insists he is wanted only for questioning in relation to sexual assault allegations.
The Twitter outburst was part of an ongoing exchange with Swedish tabloid journalist Niklas Svensson.
Svensson was the journalist who first reported Assange was wanted by Swedish police.
In an interview in the newspaper Expressen yesterday, Minister Hagglund reportedly called Assange a "pitiful wretch".
UPDATE 11:50AM (AEST):
JULIAN Assange may escape Ecuador's London embassy in a "diplomatic bag", which could be a suitcase or a crate, but experts warn the British government may intervene.
The diplomatic bag was traditionally used to transfer confidential briefings and correspondence without interference.
But over time the customary usage of the bag has been to extend the privilege to basically anything that is sent from the home country.
It can take the form of a bag, a pouch, a suitcase, a crate, a container - basically anything.
Diplomacy expert Michael McKinley told news.com.au the prospect of getting Assange to South America in a diplomatic bag couldn't be ruled out.
"If you look at the embassy in London it'd be a bit difficult to imagine a container getting in there," he told news.com.au.
"It'd be difficult but not impossible to conjure up a scenario where a large object is exported from the embassy in the current form."
"It can be intercepted - and on occasions it has been."
Dr McKinley says Britain does recognise diplomatic immunity, but can intervene.
"Britain does recognise it, but what they're now quoting is an act which allows them under certain circumstances, to enter the premises of an embassy," he said.
"They're claiming that could be invoked against Assange.
"It would be extraordinary of Britain to do it, and it's nevertheless threatening to do so."
UPDATE 11:10AM (AEST):
A MEMBER of Julian Assange's defence team says the Australian government should help the WikiLeaks founder escape Ecuador's London embassy.
Some experts have suggested the Australian could be taken from the embassy to the airport in a "diplomatic bag".
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC, who's advising Mr Assange's defence, has a better idea.
"The Ecuadorians have been questioning the Americans, the Swedes and the British but the obvious country, the country of Mr Assange's nationality, hasn't been involved," he told ABC TV.
"So it may be an opportunity for Australia to get involved on behalf of its national and see if it can square this circle." Mr Robertson said well-intentioned people wanted Mr Assange to face the allegations in Sweden as long as there wasn't a risk he'd be transferred to the US.
He said if Australia could obtain an "undertaking" from Sweden that once it had dealt with him he'd be free to return to Australia he was sure Mr Assange would have faith in the Australian courts regarding a subsequent extradition request by the US.
But Canberra is so far refusing to get involved.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr says the asylum decision is a matter for Mr Assange and the governments of Ecuador and the UK.
"Australia's role remains unchanged," Senator Carr said through a spokesman.
The WikiLeaks founder himself took a swipe at Australia after watching the decision being announced via a live link to a news conference from the Ecuadorian capital, Quito.
"It was not Britain or my home country, Australia, that stood up to protect me from persecution but a courageous, independent Latin American nation," Mr Assange said.
The suggestion that Mr Assange could leave the embassy in a bag came about because the Vienna Convention states "the diplomatic bag shall not be opened or detained". But it's only meant for official purposes.
Renowned Spanish rights lawyer Baltasar Garzon, who's helping Mr Assange's defence, has said the Australian will appeal to the International Court of Justice if Britain attempts to block his exit to Ecuador.
UPDATE 8:20AM (AEST):
THE federal government says consular assistance is still available to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange but he hasn't asked for it.
After granting asylum, the Ecuadorian government took a swipe at Australia for the lack of assistance offered to Mr Assange.
"Ecuador has noted that Mr Assange is without the due protection and help that he should receive from any state of which he is a citizen," it said in a statement.
However, Environment Minister Tony Burke said consular assistance would still be available to Mr Assange if he asked for it.
"Julian Assange is an Australian citizen ... if he wants consular support, it's offered, it's available," Mr Burke told the Seven Network on Friday.
"The offer of consular assistance is still there."
Mr Burke said Mr Assange had not contacted Australian diplomatic officials.
The Australian government had not yet had any contact with Ecuadorian officials about the diplomatic stand-off, he said.
"We've put some calls in this morning but we haven't been able to confirm that any contact has been made," Mr Burke said.
UPDATE 8:15AM (AEST):
WIKILEAKS says its founder Julian Assange will make a statement on Sunday in front of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Ecuador announced overnight it had decided to grant asylum to Mr Assange, who has been holed up at the embassy for more than eight weeks.
Britain has said the granting of diplomatic asylum does not change its "obligation" to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes.
WikiLeaks has tweeted: "Julian Assange will give a live statement in front of the Ecuadorian embassy, Sunday 2pm. "Sunday the 19th is two months exactly since Assange entered the embassy. It will be his first public appearance since March."
A member of Mr Assange's defence team has said the Australian will appeal to the International Court of Justice if Britain attempt to blocks his exit to Ecuador.
UPDATE: 7:45AM (AEST):
INTERPOL has confirmed it still considers WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange an "international wanted person", despite a decision by authorities in Ecuador to grant him asylum.
"Interpol confirms that its Red Notice, or international wanted persons alert, issued for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at Sweden's request in November 2010 remains valid," the Lyon-based international law enforcement agency said in a statement on Friday.
"Confirmation that Mr Assange's Red Notice status remains in force follows Thursday's decision by authorities in Ecuador to grant asylum to Mr Assange, two months after he took refuge in its London embassy."
Interpol does not have the power to issue international arrest warrants but can request member countries make arrests based on foreign warrants.
UPDATE: 6:10AM (AEST):
Britain has declared it will never allow Julian Assange to have safe passage to South America and has vowed to ensure he gets to Sweden to face allegations of serious sexual assaults.
This morning, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague gave a lengthy statement condemning the action of Ecuador in granting the 41-year-old Australian political asylum.
Assange has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London for almost two months claiming asylum and yesterday Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino granted him that claim and asked Britain to allow him to leave the building and fly to the capital Quito.
Mr Hague said Assange has had his day in court and several courts had ruled he must go to Sweden and the British government was committed to upholding its extradition obligations.
"It is important to understand that this is not about Mr Assange's activities at Wikileaks or the attitude of the United States of America," he said.
"He is wanted in Sweden to answer allegations of serious sexual offences.
"We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the UK, nor is there any legal basis for us to do so. The UK does not accept the principle of diplomatic asylum. It is far from a universally accepted concept".
Mr Hague said his government fully intended to carry out its duty but hoped a diplomatic solution could still be reached and he dismissed Ecuadorian claims that they had been threatened with an "attack" on their embassy.
"There is no threat here to storm an embassy. We are talking about an Act of Parliament in this country which stresses that it must be used in full conformity with international law," he said.
Assange had been watching Mr Patinos words live from Quito on the BBC in a backroom of the embassy but emerged to tell Ecuadorian diplomatic staff last night it was a "significant victory" and he warned them there would be more stressful days ahead. He also thanked his supporters.
UPDATE: 5AM (AEST):
BRITAIN has refused to grant WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange free passage out of London after Ecuador accepted his plea for asylum last night.
While the Brisbane-born 41-year-old at the heart of the global drama expressed his gratitude for Ecuador's protection, his future remains unclear.
"We are disappointed by the statement by Ecuador's foreign minister that Ecuador has offered political asylum to Julian Assange," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
"Under our law ... British authorities are under a binding obligation to extradite him to Sweden," he added, committing to uphold the ruling of British courts, which have deemed Mr Assange should face questioning in Stockholm for allegations of sexual assault.
If extradited to Sweden Mr Assange says he will be sent to the US, where he is wanted for the secret-leaking actions of his website.
It is on this fear of persecution that Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino offered Mr Assange political asylum.
"It is not impossible that he would be treated in a cruel manner, condemned to life in prison, or even the death penalty," Mr Patino told journalists in the Ecuadorian capital Quito.
"Ecuador is convinced that his procedural rights have been violated."
The US government insisted it had no intention of "persecuting" Mr Assange.
"I am not going to get into all of the legal ins and outs about what may or may not have been in his future before he chose to take refuge in the Ecuadorian mission," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
Following Mr Patino's decision on Thursday the Ecuadorian government took a swipe at Australia for the lack of assistance offered to Mr Assange.
"Ecuador has noted that Mr Assange is without the due protection and help that he should receive from any state of which he is a citizen," it said in a statement.
EARLIER
HE HAS won asylum in Ecuador, but Julian Assange is no closer to getting there.
The dramatic decision by the Latin American nation to identify the WikiLeaks founder as a political refugee is a symbolic boost for the embattled ex-hacker, but legal experts say that does little to help him avoid extradition to Sweden - and does much to drag Britain and Ecuador into a contentious international faceoff.
"We're at something of an impasse," lawyer Rebecca Niblock said shortly after the news broke. "It's not a question of law anymore. It's a question of politics and diplomacy."
The silver-haired Australian shot to international prominence in 2010 after he began publishing a huge trove of American diplomatic and military secrets - including a quarter million US embassy cables that shed a harsh light on the backroom dealings of US diplomats. Amid the ferment, two Swedish women accused him of sexual assault; Mr Assange has been fighting extradition to Sweden ever since.
The convoluted saga took its latest twist last night, when Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino announced that he had granted political asylum to Mr Assange, who had been holed up at the small, coastal nation's embassy since June 19. He said Ecuador was taking action because Mr Assange faces a serious threat of unjust prosecution at the hands of US officials.
Addressing staff at the Ecuadoran embassy, Mr Assange said: "It is a significant victory for myself, and my people. Things will probably get more stressful now."
He later added in a statement: "While today is a historic victory, our struggles have just begun. The unprecedented US investigation against WikiLeaks must be stopped."
Mr Patino said there were "serious indications" that the United States could threaten Mr Assange's "security, integrity and even his life", a nod to the fears expressed by Mr Assange and others that the Swedish sex case is merely the opening gambit in a Washington-orchestrated plot to make him stand trial in the United States - something disputed by both by Swedish authorities and the women involved.
He said he'd tried to get guarantees from the Americans, the British, and the Swedes that Mr Assange would not be extradited to the United States, but that all three had rebuffed him. He said it was clear that if Mr Assange were extradited to the US "he would not have a fair trial, could be judged by special or military courts and it's not implausible that cruel and degrading treatment could be applied, that he could be condemned to life in prison or the death penalty".
Mr Patino's decision was warmly received by cheering pro-Assange demonstrators gathered outside the Edwardian-era embassy building, just down the street from the famous Harrods department store.
"It must have been a tough decision for Ecuador because they had pressure," said Alejandra Cazas, an 18-year-old British-Bolivian citizen outside the embassy. "Now they have to watch out that he arrives to Ecuador safely."
But British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the country.
"There is no legal basis for us to do so," he said.
He said Mr Assange was wanted in Sweden to answer allegations of "serious sexual offenses" and that the extradition had nothing to do with the work of WikiLeaks or with the United States.
Mr Assange's lawyer, Spanish rights advocate, Baltasar Garzon said he will appeal to the International Court of Justice if Britain blocks his exit to Ecuador
Mr Garzon, who is helping Mr Assange's defence, told Spanish daily El Pais that Britain had a legal obligation to allow his client to leave the country once Ecuador granted him diplomatic asylum.
"What the United Kingdom must do is apply the diplomatic obligations of the Refugee Convention and let him leave, giving him safe conduct," the former judge said.
"Otherwise, we will go to the International Court of Justice."
In Canberra, federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said Australia would not intervene in the extradition debate, which is a matter between the UK and Ecuador.
How Mr Assange can get to Ecuador despite these obstacles is anyone's guess. Legal experts debated whether Mr Assange could get safe passage in a diplomatic car, escape in an oversized diplomatic bag, or slip out when police relaxed their guard.
Some said he had little choice but to stay put - potentially for years on end.
Ms Niblock, who practices at London law firm Kingsley Napley, said that staying in the embassy long-term "seems to be one of the few feasible options I can think of".
The diplomatic repercussions continued with an unlikely confrontation between Sweden and Ecuador.
In a mark of its anger over the asylum ruling, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Ecuador's ambassador to complain about the decision. The country's foreign minister, Carl Bildt, said in a message posted to Twitter that "our firm legal and constitutional system guarantees the rights of each and every one. We firmly reject any accusations to the contrary."
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa did seem to be any mood for compromise either, posting a tweet which read: "No one is going to frighten us."
The issue already seems to have frayed diplomatic ties between the UK and Ecuador. Britain's previous ambassador to Ecuador, Linda Cross, departed earlier this year and had been due to be replaced this month by Patrick Mullee. But his arrival has been delayed.
They could fray much further if Britain's decides to enforce a little-known 1987 law that gives the UK the right to enter the embassy to arrest Mr Assange - a development most legal experts called unlikely and potentially dangerous.
The inviolability of embassies "is a fundamental premise of international law", said Ms Niblock.
If Britain carried through with the move, "it would threaten their embassy premises around the world".
Meanwhile, Mr Assange's mother has welcomed the news of his asylum approval, but remains concerned about her son's security in London.
Having watched the asylum ruling on television at her Brisbane home, Christine Assange remained calm as the next page was turned in her son's lengthy legal battle.
"I don't think anybody in the international sphere can say that this was not a well-considered decision," Ms Assange said.
"I'm just extremely impressed by Ecuador's president and his ministers who are educated, ethical and philosophical people ... who truly and honestly investigated the claims made by my son."
original: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/ecuador-to-announce-assange-asylum-britain-threat-to-raid-embassy/story-fnd134gw-1226451503293
